Tag Archives: Factory Of Tears

This following review will be of the poetry collection, entitled Factory Of Tears by Valzhyna Mort.

I was intrigued to read the collection, having looked into the author Mort’s background. Born in Belarus in 1981, in it’s capital city of Minsk, formerly part of the Soviet Union and all the struggles of all that comes with it, after the USSR had consumed the Belarusian culture, and with Mort’s writing she attempts to try and reclaim her own country’s language and heritage, as well as trying to find beauty anywhere she can in her writing, something which may of effected Mort early on, as Belarus became independent in 1991, possibly influencing her from a young age.

I found her writing style to be extremely interesting and evoking both thoughts and feelings, sometimes such as rage and anger, all whilst pouring it’s heart out at Belarus itself, for seemingly ‘abandoning itself’, with this most apparent in the collection of Belarusian II, and goes to ‘war’ with words. I particularly enjoyed the title piece poem. In reading Mort’s work, including her first publication I’m As Thin As Your Eyelashes, I have began to feel more weary of how my own environment, culture and heritage has influenced my own writing and I has expanded my knowledge, perspective and view point of my own work, as a reader and as a writer.

I’d highly recommend this collection, either for established fans of poetry, or newcomers, there’s something in these pages for you to find.